Sarah Palin's MSM détente

After making attacks on what she memorably labeled “the lamestream media” one of her signature issues, Sarah Palin has started to experiment with a new strategy toward the press — engaging it.

The former Alaska governor has started cautiously cooperating with some of the same media outlets she and her supporters have accused of unfair and inaccurate coverage they feel has caricatured her as a flaky lightweight — a narrative her team seems determined to rewrite as Palin openly weighs a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

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“This is just about getting the press to characterize the governor accurately,” said Tim Crawford, a top Palin aide. “And, if that can be accomplished through Gov. Palin and some of the people around her talking to the press, we’ll try that.” (See: Palin has run in with press.)

Palin’s effectiveness as Republican John McCain’s 2008 vice presidential pick was undercut by the bad press she generated, particularly from her stumbling television interviews. After that experience — and particularly since her resignation as governor last year, which she says was prompted partly by unrelenting media scrutiny — Palin has mastered a high-impact, if unconventional, communication style that almost completely circumvents most traditional media.

Instead, she’s relied on conservative media outlets from which she is unlikely to face tough questioning (most notably Fox News, for which she is a paid contributor). She also taps social media such as Facebook and Twitter, combined with her own star power, to deliver cutting attacks on her opponents and the media that sometimes drive the political debate for days. (See: Morris: Watch GOP primaries on Fox.)

And she’s simultaneously showcased her personal charisma through two best-selling books, heavily promoted in campaign-style tours, as well as a quirkily endearing reality show about her adventures in Alaska.

But in recent weeks, Palin and her staff have adopted elements of a more traditional media strategy, cooperating with a host of neutral media outlets, notably The New York Times, TIME and ABC News, all of which, at one time or another, have drawn fire from Palin backers for allegedly biased coverage. (See: Palin: No time for Couric.)

That cooperation has resulted in mostly flattering features that broke little new critical ground. The latest MSM piece for which Palin consented to be interviewed is scheduled to air Friday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” which sent co-anchor Robin Roberts to Alaska to interview Palin and follow her around.

The strategic shift, which also included a decision to allow a handful of top staffers to talk on the record to other media outlets, was approved by Palin herself after discussions within her inner circle following some uncomfortable stories this fall.

A widely panned Vanity Fair profile used anonymous sources to portray Palin as a pampered, hot-tempered phony, prompting Palin to go on Sean Hannity’s radio show to blast as “impotent, limp and gutless” reporters who “take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references.”

But Crawford said the determining factor in deciding to engage with the press, albeit on a selective case-by-case basis (Palin declined to comment for this story, for instance), may have been a late October POLITICO article in which Republican insiders bemoaned Palin’s popularity among the base and described plans to undercut her potential presidential campaign.

The POLITICO story “may have helped trigger it because of the way that the people who wanted that story to come out — whether or not it was true — refused to identify themselves,” Crawford said.

“Everyone has just come to the conclusion that being silent while other people talk about you and try to define you hasn’t netted the results that we’d necessarily like,” Crawford added.